Sub Domains and SEO

Chuck: My response to Darren was, no, it doesn’t hurt your SEO. I mean, because frankly we see sub-domains and other domains point to internal folders on a server all the time even down to, you know, some people who share servers, right? Technically, all these things are in different folders. And so those domain names are really pointing to internal folders. So I don’t think it hurts the SEO. I just think that as long as you — make sure you do it the right way and then, you know, everything —

Chris: Yeah. You don’t want it. For instance, if our folder was blogged you wouldn’t want the address bar to say e-webstyle.com/blog, right? You can do server tricks that will point to an internal folder so that e-webstyle.com actually points to the blog folder.

Chuck: Yeah.

Chris: So in that case, clearly it won’t make a difference. I think his question was though if it’s got that extra folder extension, right? In which case, I would say — so depending on which one you’re doing, I would say that you try not to do that.

Chuck: Yeah.

Chris: Because really Google does seem to give more value and credibility to the homepage and the homepage being, you know, e-webstyle.com/ — you know, whatever. It tends to also to be where you get your inbound links intensely.

Chuck: Yeah, exactly.

Chris: So you might even be mindful of — if you’re doing — just depending — let us know which one you’re doing or — we’ve given you the answer to both. If it shows you the folder, probably not good. If you’re just doing a server trick to point to a folder, it doesn’t matter. Google doesn’t know the difference.

Chuck: Yeah.

Chris: And — all right. So we’ve doing lots of mobile and I would, you know, I would definitely to agree with Lazak here. It says that “We’re adding to our subject matter even if it’s loosely.” Today, it’s actually pretty tightly — tightly connected. Nine tips for optimizing your website for mobile users.

Chuck: Yes, sir.

Chris: So I’m gonna start with one. I’m gonna start with No. 3 — oh, where is this article from? This article is from Jamie Turner and it’s from SocialMediaExaminer.com.

Chuck: I’ll start with one.

Chris: Okay. You start with —

Chuck: You handed me No. 1.

Chris: Yeah, okay. That will work.

Chuck: No. 1 —

Chris: I’ve given you little time to like get caught up.

Chuck: Yeah, you almost confuse me. You had to be one — I said I’ll start with No. 1 or No. 2.

Chris: You can start with No. 3. Let’s see, No. 1, simplify. Then simply again and again. Excellent.

Chris: That’s exactly what we did with our client. It’s like — and it was a big point of contention in our discussion which is it’s too simple if, you know, people want other information, where do they go? And our point was, if you’re mobile, you don’t want any other information, really. And if you do, then you go to the full version.

Chuck: Yeah, which is, you know, tend to be still up for discussion so we will see. No. 2, plan your site layout. I’m gonna read this paragraph. Mobile web pages were no slower than traditional web pages so it’s important to keep the number of pages to a minimum. It’s kind of like what we were talking about with our client.

Chris: Yup.

Chuck: They wanted each page of their current websites in the mobile version.

Chris: Yup. In the [00:19:59] [Inaudible], yeah.

Chuck: And, you know, we just didn’t think that that was entirely necessary.

Chris: Yeah. And it can detract from the — we felt that it would detract from the experience actually.

Chuck: Yeah.

Chris: Number 3 is match the branding elements from your standard site to your mobile site. Now, frankly I think this goes without saying, right?

Chuck: Yeah.

Chris: And I know that there’s — we used WPtouch which a WordPress plugin that allows you to show mobile stuff. You need to —

Chuck: — style it.

Chris: You need to style it. You need to get your logo in there. You need to get your color scheme in there. They gave an example here of a website. I can’t remember 60 Second Marketer or something and it compares the full version to the mobile version and your mobile version is just simpler with icons and it really makes sense. And it has the same branding elements — so same color, same look and feel type of situation.

Chuck: I think to tie into that, that’s kind of across the board like especially if you’re doing social, right, your Twitter page and Facebook fan page and especially if you’re doing a Facebook marketing or even your YouTube background. I mean, things of that nature should all resemble your current, you know, website.

Chris: Yeah. And we’ve learned the importance of branding in the last two months. Utilize white space. So when designing — so let me just read this. It’s a natural tendency to cram as much information as possible. Fight the urge and that goes back to simply, simplify, simplify. Not only does white space give a cleaner, more sophisticated appearance. It ensures the users can quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. And I’ll just want to go back even to the branding elements. One of the differences in the sample we’re looking at is they’re really big icons to represent the different pages. And I think really you should design your mobile website to be more like an app, right?

Chuck: Exactly.

Chris: So don’t — you don’t even need to create an app for, you know, Android or iPhone. Actually, just make a mobile version that’s got big icons. It’s really simple. Think of it in terms of that. All the nice details of a good quality app should be implemented on your mobile version. You shouldn’t need an app actually for your website. Apps should be for application stuff not just for your business.

Chuck: Businesses — most apps truly are shortcuts to a mobile version.

Chris: Exactly. That’s true.

Chuck: That’s what I’ve noticed.

Chris: Yeah, that’s true.

Chuck: No. 5, avoid Flash or Java. We’ve just talked about —

Chris: Your first [00:22:38] [Inaudible] is awesome today, isn’t it? First reason is because Flash isn’t gonna be supported on mobile devices, in the short term even.

Chris: Well, I was even thinking like on our website, you know, you have to click on Internet Marketing in order to get a dropdown menu. That’s Java. The ad doesn’t work so well. I know sometimes I can get it to work on a mobile device, other times I can’t.

Chuck: Yeah.

Chris: So it’s one of the reasons we probably do need a mobile version of our website.

Chuck: Mm-hmm. That answers that question. No. 6, reduce the amount of text entry necessary. They suffer from fat finger syndrome, I, which makes it difficult to use smartphone keyboard, I, most of us have trouble typing one tiny keyboard, I, when possible your dropdown menu checklist and pre-populated fields as a means of data entry.

Chris: That — yeah.

Chuck: Excellent point, excellent tip and yes, that’s one of the reasons why my next phone like my current phone will be a slider with keyboard —

Chris: With keyboard, yeah.

Chuck: — because I can’t type on experience.

Chris: Yup.

Chuck: Let’s see, No. 7, do not use pop-up windows. Navigating between multiple tabs and browser windows is more difficult on the mobile and it can cause slow, slow times. That is so true, pop-ups on mobile sucks.

Chris: Yeah.

Chuck: Don’t do it on this extremely — this is part of the conversion, kind of like Groupon, you know.

Chris: Right.

Chuck: You have to input your location —

Chris: Right, yeah. Exactly.

Chuck: — to do anything. So that pop-up is necessary.

Chris: Did they mention this? Because sometimes I’ll be on a website and it’ll do a pop-up and because I’ve got — like I can only have six windows. Like, on my desk at the office.

Chuck: You know, blank stare for choosing the wrong way to express yourself.

Chris: Yup.

Chuck: And I’ll take that at the ones who were actually doing it. There were some good students who were just out there voicing their opinion trying to be calm but most of them were quite rowdy.

Chris: I think it was Jefferson who said something about riots and he said when people riot, you have to stop a riot such a strong fist that generations remember riotings are not cool. I don’t think we do that. That’s not our tendency. Anyway, it’s been a great podcast. We will catch you guys next Friday, Again, you can catch our podcast 9:15 Central Standard Time, Friday mornings. And then we’ve, of course, —

Chuck: Except for tomorrow.

Chris: Except for tomorrow, yeah. And we also have another podcast which is the Unknown Secrets of Website SEVO Analysis. We’ll be doing a couple more of those today and that’s what we’re doing analysis of websites from both in SEO and what we call the SEVO, Search Engine Visitor Optimization. So go check that podcast out and if you want us to do a review of your — or an analysis of your website, just go to e-webstyle.com. On the right, there’s a form. Fill out that form and if you’re one of the lucky ones and we choose your name out of our proverbial hat, we’ll do an analysis of your website. Thank you guys for tuning in. Until the next podcast, my name is Chris Burres.

Author: eweb-admin

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